Poultry feeding systems in PNG

• National Agricultural Research Institute, Papua New Guinea
• Morobe Provincial Division of Agriculture and Livestock, Papua New Guinea
• Madang Provincial Department of Primary Industries, Papua New Guinea
• Salvation Army Development Program, Papua New Guinea
• Lae Feed Mills, Papua New Guinea

The Papua New Guinea (PNG) smallholder broiler production system involves about 50,000 families and produces six million birds a year, with a value of $A54 million. Smallholders purchase day-old chicks, grow them out for six to eight weeks using commercial feeds and some locally available feeds, and sell them as live birds in local markets. At present, most farmers use imported concentrated feeds that cost $4-5 per bird.
Cheaper inputs would help smallholders to be more profitable and efficient. In particular, the use of locally available feeds could reduce costs by up to $1.50 per bird. However, locally available feeds must first be systematically evaluated and rations formulated using those feeds. This requires a more extensive testing facility than is currently available in PNG and better information about productivity using different local feeds.

The aim of this project was to improve the profitability of smallholder broiler chicken production in Papua New Guinea (PNG) by identifying cheaper local food sources and reducing reliance on imported feed.

The project team established a national feed testing facility in Labu to allow technicians to accurately evaluate the nutritional values of locally available feed resources. The facility is based on similar establishments in South Australia, and PNG technical and professional staff are being trained in the relevant techniques.
Scientists are using the facility to assess nutrient profiles (amino acids, lipids, minerals and fibre), antinutrient factors and apparent metabolisable energy (AME) for different types of feed in different seasons. This helps them to identify the local feeds suitable for inclusion in milled, pelleted feeds and those best for small-scale farmer mixing.
Lae Feed Mills formulated and distributed new rations for testing in on-station feeding trials at the PNG National Agricultural Research Institute at Labu. This allowed researchers to compare production performance and select the most suitable diets for specific areas, seasons and chicken growth phases.
Communicating with PNG farmers was an important part of the project. The project team trained extension officers to disseminate information, conduct demonstration trials on village farms, produce training materials such as posters and leaflets, and conduct workshops on feed mixing and feeding and broiler management.
Surveys of broiler production at village level established farmers' current knowledge of poultry feeding, the feeding practices they are currently using and the level of gross margins they are achieving. The information was then compared with data from surveys following the introduction of new feeding practices.
In Australia, scientists demonstrated a cheap housing and foraging system for free-range production, identified supplementary diets and feeding protocols for free range broilers and attempted to overcome some physiological problems associated with rapid growth.

Objective 1: To establish a quality-assured research facility in PNG to determine the quality of poultry feeds.
Cages and other equipment for the apparent metabolisable energy (AME) unit at NARI were made in Adelaide and shipped to Lae in 2003. The project successfully established a quality assured AME facility for poultry at the NARI Labu facility near Lae, defined the quality of several PNG feeds by undertaking AME trials, conducted a number of grow-out trials to test a range of composite ration bases, using local and commercial feeds, developed fact sheets on PNG feed resources and, importantly, developed the skills of NARI staff.

Objective 2: To formulate and evaluate low-cost milled and home mix rations based on locally available feeds.
A variety of feed resources from PNG were tested using the AME feed evaluation unit. These included maize, wheat, sorghum, sweet potato, sago, cassava, banana and legume leaves, plus various industry by-products, including millrun, rice bran, palm kernel meal, copra meal, tuna offal meal and pyrethrum marc. Several of these had AME values and protein content high enough to be considered as concentrates (about 10% of the ration) such as copra meal (15.0 MJ/kg). Other traditional staples, such as cassava (15.9 kg), sago (15.0 MJ/kg) and sweet potato (15.4 MJ/kg), had sufficient energy and were freely available in PNG to be considered for use as major components in broiler diets.

Birds (3 weeks of age) fed diets for 7 days in the AME unit with low inclusion rates (10%) of cassava, sweet potato, palm kernel meal and copra meal performed well. Copra-meal-based diets were superior. Evaluation of local feed resources over the full growing period of broilers were also undertaken with diets containing maize, cassava, copra meal, fishmeal and leucaena leaf meal. These diets were compared with a commercial ration comprising mainly imported feeds. In some trials feed conversion was superior in the commercial ration. Palatability and excessive proportions of local ingredients (eg. copra meal) may have contributed to poorer feed conversion. In other trials there was no difference between the commercial or the PNG feed-based diet.

An alternative feeding strategy was developed. It involved the development of a high protein poultry concentrate containing fishmeal and copra meal. The concentrate was fed with 70% of sweet potato (a high energy source). Research and village trials were conducted to evaluate the concentrate feeding strategy. The promising results from the on-station evaluation of the concentrate were followed by a preliminary on-farm evaluation, conducted by the Salvation Army in the Eastern Highlands Province near Kainantu. The trial with 60 village broiler units compared the performance of birds fed a commercial diet vs a treatment diet comprising the poultry concentrate fed with cooked sweet potato. While the higher moisture content of the treatment diet (containing 70% sweet potato) resulted in a higher feed intake (4.26 vs 4.0 kg/bird) and a lower live sale weight (2.0 vs. 2.4 kg) the net income from sale of live birds was only about 5% lower for the concentrate + sweet potato diet. This was a promising output from just one concentrate/local feed option, and further evaluation of the profitability of a range of concentrate diets + local feeds is warranted.

Objective 3: To establish a system for the exchange of information with smallholder farmers about low-cost rations for poultry production.
In 2003 a survey of 250 PNG smallholder farmers was conducted in the Morobe, Madang and Eastern Highlands Provinces. Information was obtained on chicken feeding practices, farmers' attitudes, constraints and their needs in raising meat chickens. Broiler chicken farming in these regions provides an additional source of income for families and is not done on a large scale. Most farmers started farming broilers on their own initiative. The husband and wife share the workload; men do most of the travelling and purchasing, while women do most of the selling. Feed and travel costs are a burden. Demand for live birds is high. Farmers have similar problems; price of chickens and feed, no access to information and no help from the government system. Most farmers agreed that farming chickens was easy and little experience was required, but was time consuming. Respondents to the survey welcomed the opportunity to have Extension Officers visit their facility to provide advice on poultry, sources of low-cost feed, disease control, business management, planning and financial opportunities.

In Australia:
Objective 4: To establish a free-range broiler production facility and evaluate local feeds.
In the Australian component of the study conducted at Roseworthy Campus, a free-range broiler facility was established in 2003. Details have been posted on the SARDI website (http://www.sardi.sa.gov.au). Studies demonstrated that free range broilers can be grazed in association with typical pasture/crop rotations in Australia or provided up to 10% of forage in the diet without major impacts on live sale weight.